Heavy Rain
by fatescanner
Summary: Ponies are mysteriously disappearing across Equestria. In the week preceding Nightmare Night, as a week-long stretch of heavy rainfall soaks the land, after a night of life-threatening events involving herself and some of her friends, Twilight Sparkle, joined by the irrepressible Rainbow Dash, decides to begin her own investigation into the disappearances.
1. Thursday, Oct 24, Ponyville, 1:38 pm

"_The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the pony mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age…"_

"Twilight? Hey Twilight, you in here?"

"_They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any ponies, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first ponies, who formed a cult which had never died…"_

"Twilight? What are you doing back here? What's that you're reading?"

"_These Great Old Ones…they were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape, but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, they could not live…"_

"Twilight? Hellllloooo, Equestria to Twilight! Come in, Twilight!"

"_That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die…"_

"Oh for the love of…TWILIGHT!"

"Ah!" Twilight Sparkle yelped in surprise, involuntarily jumping backwards in fright…and in the process, falling off the small reading stool she had situated herself on, causing her to land painfully on her back on the hard wood floor of the library's main reading area.

"Oww…" Twilight groaned with closed eyes.

"Oh, heheheh, sorry, Twilight," said a familiar, scratchy voice sheepishly from above her.

"Unh…" Twilight moaned before opening her eyes, which immediately fell upon the blue-coated, rainbow-maned figure of Rainbow Dash, who was hovering a few feet above her, a somewhat abashed look on her face, although that look seemed to be struggling to maintain itself in its effort to not burst out into laughter.

"Rainbow Dash, what's the big idea?! You nearly gave me a heart attack there!" Twilight shouted indignantly up at her friend.

"Ngh…ggh…s-sorry, Twilight…so…s-so…" In an effort to try keeping her laughter under control, Rainbow tried sticking a hoof in her mouth, but it was a futile effort. With eyes watering and cheeks puffed out comically as they struggled to hold in her laughter, Rainbow's façade finally broke, and she burst into a fit of uproarish, uncontrollable laughter.

Twilight gave the hysterical pegasus a flat look from her position on her back. "Yeah, uh-huh, very funny, Rainbow, ha ha ha…" Twilight said sarcastically, fighting the urge to cast a Color Changer hex on Rainbow that would make her coat and mane decidedly less rainbow-y, which, to a mare as uniquely known for her appearance as Rainbow Dash, would certainly cause a great deal of grief for the pegasus, and that was probably putting it lightly. But seeing as she was friends with Rainbow, she most certainly couldn't do something like that, now, could she?

_Aw, come on, it's not like she isn't asking for it, laughing at you like that, and besides, it'll only last for a day! It'll teach her to not so callously make fun of unicorns in the future! _an unscrupulous part of her mind seemed to whisper to her unconsciously.

_Quiet, you, _she thought back, banishing her dark thoughts to whatever recesses of her mind they had crawled out of.

"Hey, Twilight, everything all right in here?" came the voice of Spike as he poked his head into the atrium, his eyes immediately coming to rest on Twilight, who was now in the process of getting back to her hooves. "Are you okay, Twilight? I thought I heard something fall from the room over," he asked worriedly.

Twilight sighed as she regained her footing. "It's okay, Spike, I'm okay," she said reassuringly. _Despite somepony's best efforts to ensure otherwise… _she grumbled mentally to herself, throwing a brief half-lidded look to the pegasus over her shoulder, whose laughter had now winded down to occasional snorts and giggles. "Rainbow here just startled me a bit, that's all."

"…Okay, if you say so," the baby dragon replied after a moment, casting brief glances between the two before leaving the room, rolling his eyes as he did so; he knew of Dash's penchant for pranking firsthoof, after all. Thinking back on that incident and all the confusion and trouble it caused for Princess Celestia, and in turn, for him, Spike couldn't help but think that he'd like to see Rainbow try a prank like that on a _full-grown_ dragon and see where that got her.

"So, Rainbow, might I ask as to why you've decided to visit? Or did you just come here with the express purpose of scaring the living Tartarus out of me?" Twilight asked irritably, turning around to face Rainbow.

"Oh, come on, Twi, lighten up, will ya?" Rainbow jovially retorted as she flew over and landed beside Twilight, throwing a friendly hoof around Twilight's shoulders. "I swear, you take things _way _too seriously sometimes, you know? Is that like a universal trait for eggheads or something?" she asked with a chuckle.

Twilight responded by narrowing her eyes dangerously at Dash, as the urge to cast the Color Changer hex returned stronger than ever.

Not noticing-or just plain disregarding-the dangerous steely glint in Twilight's eyes proper, Rainbow continued on, saying, "See? That's what I mean! You gotta loosen up, Twilight. Being serious all the time can't be good for ya, you know what I mean?

Twilight merely continued her glare.

Dash sighed, finally giving in. "Alright, alright, fine. Sorry for scaring you, Twilight," she mumbled in apology. "Is that better?"

Twilight didn't much care for Rainbow's mumbled apology, but realistically, it was the best she could hope to get out of the pegasus. It was just Rainbow Dash's way; in truth, Twilight was sure that Rainbow was truly being as sincere as possible in her apology.

Relenting her hard look finally, Twilight said, "Yes. Much better. Apology accepted, Rainbow. Although next time, try finding a less startling way to get my attention, okay?" she said with a small smile.

Rainbow smiled. "Yeah, well, hey, it _is _October. Nightmare Night's coming up pretty soon, and the way I figure it, everypony's entitled to one good scare, am I right?" she said, shrugging good-naturedly.

_Knowing you, Rainbow Dash, I wouldn't settle on just one in your case. More like a hundred, _Twilight thought amusedly.

"Besides," Rainbow Dash continued, "it wasn't like I hadn't already _tried_ to get your attention. I must've called your name like ten times, you just couldn't hear me! You were too busy ogling that book over there!" she explained, pointing a hoof towards the book in question, still lying open on the reading desk.

"Oh, eheheheh, sorry…" Twilight apologized sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. "I guess I must've just gotten too caught up in reading."

Dash responded by rolling her eyes before flying over to the desk to curiously regard the book sitting on it. "So, what's this book you're reading, anyway?" Not waiting for Twilight to answer, Rainbow hoofed the book closed to regard the title embossed on the front cover. "_The Collected Tales of H.P. Hoofcraft_? Heh, now that's a weird name. Who is this guy? I've sure never heard of him."

"Really, Rainbow, how many authors _are _you aware of, besides the author of the Daring Do series?" Twilight asked jokingly.

"Hey! I know plenty of other authors!" Dash lied indignantly, crossing her hooves in the air.

"Oh, really?" Twilight asked archly, raising an eyebrow. "Name one."

"Er…well, um…there's that author who, um…wrote that story about the, erm…the, uh, thing…and then there's this, uh, this pony who goes in search of this…thing…uh, heheh, y'know, the, uh…the thing?" Rainbow offered with a weak grin.

"Yeah. Sounds like a plot from Daring Do," Twilight said deadpan.

"Eheheheh…" Dash chuckled nervously while rubbing a hoof across the back of her head, a sheepish grin on her face.

Twilight shook her head slightly in amusement. "You know, Rainbow, there really are tons of other great stories out there that you could read in the meantime that I'm sure you would love. You don't have to limit yourself to just one book series. I could help in that regard by giving you some suggestions for you to check out, if you're interested. I'm certain we could find something in this library that will kindle your reading spirit!" she said amiably, gesturing to the many myriads of novels and tomes that decorated the library shelves surrounding them, her mind excited at the prospect of helping one of her best friends in selecting a book for her to read. It was a chance to talk about some of her favorite authors and books and to even possibly get Rainbow Dash interested in those authors herself! It was a bookworm's dream!

That hope was extinguished, however, when Rainbow Dash chuckled and said, "Nah, that's okay, Twi. I'm fine with just reading the Daring Do series for the time being. But hey, thanks for the offer, anyway," adding the last bit in in response to seeing the slightly disappointed look pass over Twilight's face.

Shrugging off her disappointment, Twilight smiled and said, "Oh, alright then. Maybe next time." She then moved over to the book on the desk herself, whereupon she levitated it with her magic, and with the book hovering alongside her, moved to return it to its proper place where she had found it. As she was doing this, she remarked to Rainbow, "But still, Dash, the fact that you limit yourself to just one book series is rather silly, in my opinion. From what I've seen, whenever the author releases a new book in the series, you usually have it finished in two to three weeks, tops. What in Equestria do you read in the meantime when she's busy writing the next novel in the series?"

Rainbow, who was following behind Twilight on the ground, answered casually, "Eh, I usually just re-read some of the other books in the series. Sometimes I even re-read through the entire series in the order they came out up till the latest novel. I like to call those 'Daring Do marathons': I challenge myself to try to get through as many of them as I can in the time it takes for the author to release the next book in the series. My current record is fourteen out of twenty-three!" she boasted, grinning cheekily.

Twilight laughed openly at the pegasus' comment. _Oh, Rainbow…_ she thought wryly to herself. "But still, doesn't it get boring after a while, reading the same books over and over and over again?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Nope! Not even remotely!" Rainbow Dash answered with a grin. "Whether she's delving into some ancient Naztec ruin in search of treasure, dodging perilous traps by the skin of her teeth, running from angry hordes of tribal zebras, or dealing with villainous rival treasure hunters, Daring Do will _never _get old for me! And besides," she said, waving a hoof casually, "it's not like Daring Do's the _only _thing I read."

"Oh?" Twilight asked over her shoulder, having reached the appropriate bookshelf for the book suspended in her magic to be placed.

"Yeah, I also read the occasional magazine every now and then, especially if there's a new Gabby Gums article in it. I also read the sports section of the _Equestria Daily _every now and then, to see if there's any cool news happening in the sports world. Oh, and I also read the funny pages, too," Rainbow Dash answered. Twilight snorted mentally.

"So, anyway, you gonna tell me who this Hoofcraft guy is you were reading about?" Rainbow Dash then asked, staring up at the book in question as Twilight slid it back into place amongst the other books.

"Oh, of course!" Twilight exclaimed brightly. "Well," she began, "H.P. Hoofcraft is considered by many to be one of the greatest science fiction and horror writers of the past century. He was renowned for eschewing the normal conventions of horror writing by telling tales that not only focused on the tangible elements of what causes us fear, but also on the intangible elements, stuff like the various emotions of the pony psyche, insanity, alternate realities, and the unknown. He firmly believed that it was not ghosts, goblins, or demons that terrified us most, but rather the fear of the unknown, things we have yet to discover, and that are probably best left _un_discovered. Topics such as necromancy, witchcraft and the occult, strange alien worlds, and ancient beings from other dimensions with the power to destroy all of reality formed the basis for a good many of his stories, and a great many of today's writers cite him as a tremendous influence."

Rainbow gave Twilight a blank stare. "Oooookay…so he's a…very good horror writer, then?" she asked slowly.

"…Yes, to put it so bluntly, yes, he was," Twilight said deadpan with a half-lidded expression.

"Then why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Rainbow scoffed. Twilight facehoofed, deciding not to mention that she had, in fact, mentioned that right off the bat.

"So…reading scary stories, huh? Trying to get into the Nightmare Night spirit yourself then, eh, Twilight?" Dash asked with a knowing grin, waggling her eyebrows.

"Well, I was trying to come up with ideas as to who I'm going to dress up as, so I decided to peruse some of the books in here in an attempt to get some inspiration," Twilight explained.

"Really? Got any ideas so far?" Dash inquired curiously.

"Not really, no," Twilight said with a frown. "But I'm sure I'll think of something eventually," she said confidently.

"Well, hopefully it'll be better than what you went as last year," Dash said jokingly.

"Hey!" Twilight said indignantly. "Dr. Feinstein was one of the most brilliant mathematicians and physicians of his age! His work on proving the theo-"

"Yeah, yeah, so in short, he was an egghead," Dash interrupted, not interested in hearing Twilight go into another long-winded spiel. "All I know is that the guy apparently had a really weird manestyle, going by that freaky wig you were wearing last year," she laughed.

"And I suppose _you_ already know who you'll be going as?" Twilight asked flatly, raising an eyebrow, ignoring Rainbow's ribbing.

"Yep!" Dash said with a flashy grin. "I'm gonna be dressing up as the lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Tartarus!"

"Huh, can't say I've ever heard of them," said Twilight. Then again, she didn't really count herself as a music-listening pony, and _certainly_ not to the type of music Dash liked to listen to. Twilight cringed mentally as she remembered the time she had foolishly let her pegasus friend convince her to listen to a sample of her music off one of her records…

...

_Twilight gazed in wonderment and bewilderment at the odd setup Rainbow had set down in the middle of the library atrium. At one end of the setup a rather odd vinyl record player lay on the floor. There were a bunch of weird knobs attached to it that Twilight had never seen before on a record player, and the rather large and long wire that ran out from behind it was certainly a curiosity. The wire ran over to a rather tall and powerful-looking black speaker stack, which Rainbow Dash was busy plugging the other end of the wire into._

"_So where on Equestria did you get this crazy setup, Rainbow?" Twilight queried, her eyes running up and down the impressive speaker stack._

_From the other side of the speaker, Twilight heard Rainbow say, "Eh, the record player I got from a buddy in mine in Cloudsdale who own a record shop. He did the modifications to it himself; he's a wiz at coming up with all sorts of cool features to add to stuff that makes them infinitely more awesome. He says that someday he's gonna make a killing selling all of his modified stuff to big music equipment companies for them to market to everypony in Equestria, and let me tell ya, I have no doubt in my mind that he will; he's made some incredibly awesome stuff besides that record player there. Now, let's see…ah, here we go!" A faint buzz of feedback came from the speakers as Rainbow plugged the wire into it. Coming around from behind the speaker, she continued, "This awesome speaker set, however," she began, laying a hoof reverently on the side of the tall black box, "was given to me by Vinyl Scratch here in Ponyville." _

"_The locally-renowned nightclub performer?" Twilight asked in surprise._

"_Yep, the very same," Dash answered with a grin. "I've known her for a while, and even though she has an affinity for dance music, she also shares interest in a lot of the bands I like, and loves to talk them over with me, so I guess you could say me and her are music buddies, heheh. So anyway, one day she comes up to me with a proposal. She said that she was getting rid of some of her older equipment, as she was gonna be getting some newer stuff to replace it soon. She knew that I had had my eye on her speaker set for a while; I didn't have the bits to buy a good one myself, you see, and I'd wanted one real bad for a while. She told me that she'd be willing to let me take one of her old speakers off her hoofs, in exchange for me doing her a favor in return. So naturally, I jumped at the offer." _

"_And what was the favor she wanted?" Twilight asked._

"_Oh, she wanted me to help her with this big outdoors music festival she was taking part in a little ways out of Manehattan. She wanted something spectacular to highlight her set, something that would put her performance above the rest of the bands performing and truly make hers stand out. So she asked me if I would be able to perform a Sonic Rainboom above the stage during the climax of her final song. She knew that _that_ would certainly make her performance stand out and fire the crowd up, without a doubt," Dash explained with a prideful grin on her features._

"_Wow, a Sonic Rainboom; that certainly would be quite the showstopper, I'll admit." Twilight remarked with a smile. "Although, she must've known how difficult those are to perform, especially seeing as you're the only pegasi who's been able to perform one in, well, _centuries_, at the very least, and I can't imagine they're a trot in the park to pull off, regardless, _especially_ in the time frame that Vinyl wanted it to happen in. The odds of you pulling off a Sonic Rainboom at the precise climax of her song are a thousand to one, at least," she continued with a frown._

"_Yeah, I told her as much myself, but she just waved it off, saying that as long as it happened sometime during her final song, that it would be good enough, and that even if I failed to perform one, she would be thankful that I tried my best, and that she would still give me her speaker regardless," said Dash._

"_Wow, that's very kind and generous of her to do that," Twilight said amazedly._

"_Yeah, I know, right? Not that she was in any danger of that happening; I was confident I would be able to pull one off for her. She had nothing to worry about there." Dash said with a cocky smile._

"_So, did everything work out, then?" asked Twilight._

"_Heh, what do you think?" Dash asked while indicating the speaker stack. "Of course it worked out, and judging by Vinyl's gushing to me afterwards, it went off at the exact time she wanted, and everypony went absolutely nuts. Said the cheer sent up by the crowd was loud enough to shake the stage, and that I'd more than earned the speaker. Used it for whenever I'm in the mood for listening to music since, and let me tell ya, I cannot understate how totally _awesome_ this thing is at blasting out the sounds; Vinyl sure knows her sound systems, I'll give her that."_

"_I imagine it must've been difficult to lug that thing all the way down here from your house though. It looks awfully heavy," Twilight remarked dubiously, eyes running up and down the box's rather sizable length._

"_Eh, don't worry, it's no biggie," Dash said while waving a hoof dismissively. "It's not _that_ far a trip from here to my house, and on the off hoof that I can't do it by myself, I'll just ask one of the other pegasi around town to help me carry it back."_

"_Oookay, if you say so," said Twilight, dearly hoping that Rainbow wouldn't strain herself too much by trying to carry the heavy-looking speaker set back to her house all by herself. "So, now that this is all set up, what was this music that you wanted to show me?" she asked._

"_Only the most awesomely spectacularly epic band in all of Equestria, that's what!" Dash said with a wide grin as she zoomed over to her saddlebags, which she had dropped near the entrance to the library atrium, pulled something out of them, and then flew back over to Twilight, where she presented the object, a square, thin piece of cardboard with an image of what appeared to be a griffon talon curled into a fist smashing down onto…a skull?! Yes, it was most definitely a skull, although (thankfully) Twilight couldn't tell what type of animal the skull belonged to, mainly due to the fact that the griffon's fist had apparently come down with so much power as to shatter the entire upper portion of the skull into dozens of tiny fragments which could be seen exploding outward from the point of the fist's impact. Lovely._

"_Griffallica?" Twilight read aloud, eyeing the band logo printed in sharp, white angular letters at the top of the image. "Huh. Can't say I've heard of them."_

"_Yeah, I hadn't heard of them either until I met Gilda back during my days at Cloudsdale Academy. She was a big fan of them herself; I remember she had a signed poster of their guitar player, Gryph Diamondwing, hanging in the dorm we shared together. Heh, you would not believe how protective she was of that poster, too…" Suddenly a sad, wistful look passed over the pegasus' features as she continued, "Heh, you know, come to think of it, if it wasn't for her, I probably would've never gotten into metal music in the first place…I'll always be thankful to her for that…"_

_Twilight frowned with concern at her friend's words; ever since the argument she and Gilda had had at the surprise party she and Pinkie had thrown to welcome Gilda to Ponyville, no one had seen hide nor feather of the griffin in Ponyville again. While Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had hardly shed any tears over the incorrigible griffin's departure ("She was a real Grump Grumpy McGrumperton, and it's really, really, _really_ hard to try and be friends with a Grump Grumpy McGrumperton, even for somepony like me! And believe me, I tried!" Pinkie had remarked afterwards.), it was clear that the fallout of friendship between her and Dash had taken its toll on the rainbow-maned pegasus. For the remainder of the week after the party, Dash had become oddly withdrawn and quiet, a stark contrast to her usual boisterous and outspoken attitude. There were some periods in which Twilight never saw her around town at all; Fluttershy had later told Twilight that Dash had spent a great deal of time cooped up alone in her house in the skies above Ponyville, and that when she had gone there herself to see if Dash was alright, she had been turned away with a gruff, "I just need to be alone for a bit right now, all right?" from Dash, although Fluttershy had also said that Dash appreciated that she had come to check up on her. While Dash had eventually managed to break out of her funk (thanks in no small part to the combined efforts of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the former offering kind words and a confiding, solacing presence, and the latter by just being Pinkie Pie.), it was exceptionally clear to Twilight as to just what had caused her friend to sink into such a depressed state. To have such an impact on Dash, she and Gilda must have grown exceptionally close as friends indeed during the time they had known each other back in flight school. To have a friendship of that caliber so suddenly go up in flames…Twilight couldn't imagine how terrible an experience that must've been for Dash to go through, and she couldn't help but wonder if Gilda underwent the same torment at losing her friend as Dash did._

_But before Twilight say any comforting words, the sad, wistful look on Dash's face abruptly shifted back to her original demeanor, her thoughts about the griffin no doubt banished back to the dark portion of her mind she used to sequester her painful memories from herself. "Anyway, enough talk; whaddya say we slap this bad colt on already?"_

_Without further ado, Rainbow quickly flew over to the record player on the ground, slipped the round black vinyl disc from its case, and carefully laid it upon the turntable. She fiddled with one of the knobs on the bottom of the player before grabbing the needle apparatus and lining it into position over the record on the turntable, slowly bringing it down towards the vinyl, a wide, eager, anticipatory grin spread across her features._

"_Okay, but not too lo-" Twilight began to say, but that was as far as she got before the needle hit the record, and she was immediately bombarded by a massive wave of sound consisting of extremely fast, crunchy, distorted, and above all, insanely _loud_ guitars, harsh, snarling, venomous vocals, and pounding drum patterns coupled with punishing double bass blast beats which, roaring out of the massive speaker set, was enough to actually blow Twilight _off her hooves entirely, _the purple unicorn's scream drowned out as she flew backwards to collide with a bookshelf in the adjacent entrance area of the library: "OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDD-_oof!"

_Her impact caused many of the books in the shelves to fall out, unfortunately, right on top of Twilight on the floor, causing her to be buried in a considerable pile of books. After a moment, Twilight's head burst out of the pile, a dizzy and shellshocked look on her features, although that look quickly dissipated as brought her hooves to shield her ears from the continued audial assault emanating from the speaker system. And right in the middle of this chaotic assault on the eardrums hovered Rainbow Dash, obliviously banging her head like a madpony, her front hooves juxtaposed in an air guitar position, and a look of savage musical ecstasy etched on her features…_

_..._

_Ugh, it seemed like days before my hearing returned to normal after that. I still don't know how Rainbow's ears manage to take it. I'm just glad Spike was out of the library that day helping Rarity… _Twilight regarded to herself as the memory faded. Bringing her attention back to the conversation, Twilight asked, "Anyway, all talk of Nightmare Night costumes aside, why exactly are you here, Rainbow?"

Dash raised her eyebrows. "Seriously, Twi? Don't tell me you forgot about the agreement."

"Huh? What agreement?" Twilight asked confusedly.

Dash facehoofed. "The agreement to help Applejack, remember? She needs help in loading the apples and cider she's gonna be taking over to Appleloosa with Big Macintosh, and me and you agreed to help her out." she explained.

Twilight's eyes widened in realization. "Oh my gosh, you're right, Rainbow! I did agree to help out with that, didn't I? I totally forgot about it! Ohh, how could I have let something as important as that slip my mind?" she berated herself as she raised a hoof to her forehead.

"Heh, it was only like two days ago that we agreed to that, Twi. Where've you been?" Rainbow snarked playfully, grinning cheekily at Twilight.

"Ehehehe…sorry..." Twilight said sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. _How could this have happened? I'm usually good to remember stuff like this! Ohh, Rainbow must be so annoyed at me right now…_

As if sensing her thoughts, Rainbow smiled good-naturedly and said, "Ahh, don't sweat it, Twilight, it's no biggie. I'm just joshing ya. I kinda figured you might forget about it, so that's why I came here first. Guess it's a good thing I did, huh?"

Twilight chuckled lightly. "Yeah, no doubt about that. Thanks, Rainbow. I guess I owe you one."

Rainbow waved a hoof at Twilight. "Ahh, no ya don't. Forget about it, Twi; I'm just helpin' ya out. After all, what are friends for?" she said kindly.

"Regardless, thanks again, Rainbow. You really are a true friend," Twilight said with a grateful smile.

Rainbow blushed slightly as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Heh, it was nothing, really…" Quickly regaining her composure, Dash straightened her posture and said with a smile, "Anyway, enough of the mushy-gushy stuff; you ready to go or what?"

Twilight smiled back and said, "Yes, of course. I'd hate to keep Applejack waiting any longer. Let's get going!"

"Okay, then! We're going to be meeting A.J. in the market square and then heading to Sweet Apple Acres from there, just so you know. She should be close to closing up her stall for the day." Dash said as they both headed into the main atrium and towards the front door.

"Gotcha," Twilight said in the affirmative. She then turned towards Spike, who was in the process of shelving returned books to their respective places, and said, "Hey, Spike, me and Rainbow are heading out for a bit. We're going to go help Applejack in packing some apples and cider for a delivery trip she'll be making to Appleloosa. Keep an eye on the library, okay?"

"You got it, Twi. Say hi to Applejack for me, okay?" said the baby dragon.

"I will," Twilight replied, smiling, before turning to continue walking towards the door, by which Rainbow Dash was waiting.

"Oh, but hey, Twilight," Spike called out to Twilight as she reached the door and opened it with her magic, letting in the cool October breeze from outside. "Just make sure you come back by nightfall tonight, okay? They're gonna be starting that week-long rain stretch come this evening, and it's gonna start off with a big doozy of a thunderstorm that'll last from nightfall until next morning, from what I hear."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to be back by then," Twilight said reassuringly. "I'll see you later, Spike."

"Catch ya later, Spikeanator!" Rainbow added on.

"See you, girls!" Spike called out after them as the two friends walked out, Twilight shutting the door behind them.

* * *

**A/N:** The excerpts at the beginning of this chapter come are taken with the greatest respect and reverence from H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Call of Cthulhu' story, arguably his most recognized story, and the most influential story in his acclaimed 'Cthulhu Mythos' series. Mr. Lovecraft is one of my favorite writers of all time, and I heartily encourage anyone who hasn't heard of him to check his stories out.


	2. Ponyville, 2:03 pm

The crisp weather and slightly overcast sky above served to highlight the time of year as Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash made their way towards the market square. The streets of Ponyville were littered with numerous multi-hued leaves from the trees dotting the community (most of them coming from the library, it being the largest and tallest tree in Ponyville) whose foliage had turned the beautiful shades of orange, red, and yellow typical with the coming of the colder fall months. The delicate leaves crunched underhoof as the two friends walked along.

Looking up, Twilight observed the sight of several pegasi swooping to and fro in the skies above Ponyville. Large teams of the winged ponies were seen pushing rather large dark-looking cloud embankments into position, with others helping with the coordination of said task. It struck Twilight as to just how _large_ the stormcloud embankment was getting. It seemed to stretch far beyond the vicinity of Ponyville alone.

"Wow. They weren't kidding when they said this one was going to be one big storm we'll be getting tonight," Twilight said, stating her thoughts to Rainbow, who was walking beside her.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Rainbow answered, casting an eye up to look at the spectacle above. "Pretty impressive, huh?" she asked turning to grin at Twilight.

"I'll say," Twilight stated simply in a tone of amazement. "It looks like this goes far beyond Ponyville alone."

"You'd be right about that," Dash answered with a trace of amusement. "That stormcloud formation is gonna stretch across the entire area from here, to Manehattan, and over to Canterlot." she explained.

Twilight's eyes widened as her mind reeled at that statement. A quick mental estimate told her that a stormcloud formation of that area and magnitude had to encompass over a hundred square miles, at the least!

"That's got to be over a hundred square miles, at the least!" she stated in disbelief.

Rainbow stared at Twilight uncomprehendingly. "What's a square mile?"

"It's, er, well…" Twilight stated awkwardly, trying to come up with a way to explain her logic to Dash and failing. "…Ah, forget it. You wouldn't understand. Let's just say that it's a very, _very_ big area, alright?"

Dash gave a short laugh and said, "Yeah, I get you in that regard, at least."

After a few moments of silence, Twilight asked, "So, has anything this big ever happened before?"

Dash shrugged and said, "Not in the time that I've been a weather pony. Can't speak for the pegasi who were weather ponies before I joined, but I'm willing to bet it hasn't happened often. I don't suppose you've ever seen something like this?"

Twilight shook her head and said, "No, not in all my life. Just the regular localized storms; nothing like this. Did they give a reason as to why they're doing this?"

"Something to do with the extreme shortage of rainfall during the summer months, from what I heard. So we're setting this up in order to make up for that lax period," Dash answered.

"I thought that that stuff was all carefully regulated, though. How can there even be a lax period?" Twilight wondered.

Dash shrugged again and said, "I guess even the higher-ups can make errors of judgment sometimes."

"Huh. Well, fair enough, I suppose," said Twilight. "And this rain period is scheduled to last for the whole week?"

Dash nodded and said, "Yeah, tonight's gonna have the big thunderstorm, and then for the rest of the week there's gonna be on and off periods of rain, with more chances of it being on than off, and when it's on, it'll usually range from pouring to monsoon levels," cracking a joking grin as she finished.

Twilight chuckled and said, "Well, it's a good thing I've got an umbrella. Although, I honestly don't expect many ponies to be out and about during the week."

"Well, I for one don't mind it. In fact, I actually kinda like flying around in the rain, it's… I dunno, I guess you could say relaxing. Guess it's due in part to me playing stormball in flight school. So long as it's _just_ rain; not even I'm dumb enough to fly in a wild lightning storm." Dash remarked.

"You know, speaking of the storm, shouldn't you be up helping them or something?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah, I'm responsible for weather _dispersal_, not assembly. Not saying I can't assemble weather, I can, it's just that there's already more than enough assembly pegasi up there already getting stuff in place. When the time comes to get rid of those storm clouds, _that'll_ be my time to shine," Dash said with an eager grin. "And hey, if anypony up there needs me for something, they know where to find me."

"Okay, if you say so," Twilight said, accepting Dash's answer.

At that point, Twilight and Rainbow were passing by the entrance to the town hall building when Twilight noticed something: a unicorn stallion, wearing an angular-looking blue cap with a small circular metal stamp on the front embossed with the logo of the Ponyville Town Watch (a small volunteer organization unique to Ponyville founded in the years after the town's formation that took the place of a regular police force; Ponyville was considered too small, rustic, and peaceful to warrant its own police force. Still, the Watch, despite its relatively few numbers throughout the years since its formation, managed to do a rather admirable job of keeping the peace, although instances requiring their attention throughout those years had admittedly been few and far between.), was in the process of nailing a sheet of paper to the town's bulletin board. With remarkable deftness, the stallion used his magic to levitate a sturdy wooden mallet and nail into position at one of the four corners of the paper as he held it up to the large wooden board with a hoof, and then nailed it into place, levitating another nail from his saddlebags as he did so, doing the same for the other three corners. Once he had finished, the stallion turned around, noticing the two mares standing behind him, the purple-coated one giving him an inquiring stare. However, instead of answering, the stallion frowned sadly, sighed, and shook his head before moving off past Rainbow and Twilight without saying a word.

As Twilight moved over to look at the paper the watchpony had posted, Rainbow stared after the stallion in question with a puzzled look. "Yeesh, what do you think's got him so down in the dumps?" she wondered openly.

From behind her, Rainbow her a small gasp. "Twi?" Dash asked as she turned around to face her friend, who was staring at the recent board posting, a hoof held to her mouth. "Twi?" she asked again, moving closer. "What's wro…" And then she got a good look at the paper herself. Her ears drooped as her expression changed to one of dour sadness. "Oh," she said simply.

It was a poster, one which had a picture of a rather pretty-looking unicorn mare with a black hide and a wild-looking white-colored mane, with the word 'MISSING' starkly emblazoned over the top. And it wasn't the only one; several other similar posters advertising missing ponies were spread across the bulletin board.

"By Celestia…" Twilight whispered in shock and horror. "That's the twelfth pony that's gone missing this month!"

Since the beginning of September, Equestria had had a sudden influx of missing pony reports from Manehattan to Canterlot and the surrounding areas, including Ponyville. While it did raise worried eyebrows at first, it was mostly ignored by the populace as maybe a few rebellious ponies leaving their families in an attempt to buck off society, as some teenagers were wont to do. But then more ponies went missing, and then more, and that's when indifference turned to worry and fear. The thought of a possible serial ponynapper running around created a palpable sense of unease to the region. Citizens rarely ventured out at night alone, fearful parents kept closer watch over their children and always walked them to and from their chosen schools each day, and regular police patrols were increased.

Despite these actions, none of it appeared to do any good, as ponies continued to go missing at a weekly rate. All told, from the beginning of September up till the current point in time, there had been a total of twenty-two ponies that had gone missing. And now, counting the latest addition to the board, there were thirty-four.

"This is getting way out of hoof; how many more ponies are going to go missing before the culprit is finally found?" Twilight wondered aloud, a tone of sadness in her voice.

"I'm starting to wonder why the princesses haven't gotten involved themselves," said Dash.

"There's not much point for them to do so, Dash," explained Twilight. "There's been no leads whatsoever, no witnesses to the ponynappings. Even if they were to get involved directly, which would be exceedingly difficult in and of itself, given all they're responsible for already, odds are they'd be just as stumped as the police are at this point. They may be alicorns, but if there's not even a single shred of evidence to go on…"

"Yeah, I guess I see your point," Dash admitted reluctantly.

"Besides, I already sent a letter to Princess Celestia about the matter, and she pretty much said the same thing I told you, albeit more detailed and formal. But she did express how much she wished she could do more; she's just as upset with the situation as everyone else, if not more so. It must be eating her up, knowing she can't do anything," said Twilight, sympathy and concern in her voice for her friend and mentor.

"Yeah," Dash agreed solemnly. "But what about Princess Luna? Did you send a letter to her as well?" she then asked.

"I did, but I never got a reply," answered Twilight.

"Huh. That's strange, getting a reply from Celestia but not from Luna," Dash observed.

"She just had too many other things to do, I suppose," said Twilight. _But then again, who knows when it comes to Luna? _she thought to moon princess had always come across as an enigmatic pony to her subjects and to Twilight ever since her return, despite their friendship formed at last year's Nightmare Night. Apart from being the sister of Celestia and the guardian of the night and raiser of the moon (as well as the former Nightmare Moon, but Twilight saw no reason to bring that sordid fact into equation), Twilight knew next to nothing about Luna personally. "Well, come on, let's get going. We don't want to keep Applejack waiting," she said, turning to walk away from the board.

"Right," said Rainbow, falling into step beside her. After a minute or two of walking in silence, Dash decided to speak up.

"Hey, y'know, Twilight, I bet _you_ could find the ponynapper, no problem!" she said, grinning at the unicorn.

The statement caused Twilight to stop in her tracks, shock written over her face. "W-what?" she stammered.

Having walked past her, Rainbow turned to look back at her, a bemused look on her face. "Heh, I said I bet you'd be able to find whoever's doing this, easy," she repeated.

"And w-what makes you think that?!" asked Twilight, still reeling somewhat from Dash's statement.

"Well, you're like the smartest pony I know, for one. You're good at figuring out stuff most other ponies would have trouble with. You're also good at noticing things that seem out-of-place. You like asking questions; I'm sure that's useful in investigations and such. And you're a unicorn, that's gotta count for something; I bet there are some spells you could use to help you find clues and stuff," Dash elaborated.

"But I've never _done_ anything like that before! I've never done any investigating!" Twilight protested.

"Uh, yeah you have. Remember that time on the Friendship Express?" Dash asked pointedly, smiling and raising an eyebrow.

"That was totally different! Trying to figure out who ate who's desserts is a _lot _different from trying to track down and capture a serial ponynapper, Rainbow! And we don't even know if it ends at the ponynapping! We could be dealing with a serial _killer_ for all we know!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Okay, okay, Twilight, don't work yourself up, I wasn't seriously suggesting it. It was just a thought I had," Dash said placatingly, holding up a hoof. She then turned back and continued forward, calling over her shoulder, "Still, I do think you'd make a great investigator, Twilight. You gotta admit, it sounds like a cool job."

Twilight remained where she was, staring silently at Dash's back as the pegasus walked along for a moment, then sighed, shook her head, and moved to catch up with her friend, as they silently continued their trek to the market square. Although, in her mind, the unicorn librarian couldn't help but secretly think on her friend's words:

_Hmm…Investigator Twilight Sparkle…I suppose it _does_ sound pretty cool…_

…

_Sweet Apple Acres, 5:29 p.m._

"Really gotta thank ya'll for helpin' me out with this, Twilight, Dash," said Applejack as she fit a lid over a barrel filled with apples, making sure it securely snug around the circumference of the wood so it had no chance of coming loose.

"Oh, it's no problem, Applejack, really. We're happy to help," said Twilight as she and Dash took hold of the barrel, lifting it up using the hoofholds on either side of the barrel, Twilight gripping her end with her levitation magic, and Dash gripping hers manually, using her wings for lift. Together, the two of them were able to lift the barrel without too much strain, bringing it over to rest above an empty spot in the cart before gently dropping it into place, Dash giving a small grunt of exertion as the barrel met the cart bed. Wiping her forehead where a little sweat had accumulated, Dash regarded the contents of the cart so far: there were six barrels, three of them containing apples, the other three with flour, lined up in two rows of three across the cart bed.

"Yeah, what Twi said, A.J.," she said smiling, looking over at her earth pony friend. "Besides, I promised I'd help ya, didn't I? And Rainbow Dash never leaves a pony hanging on a promise, especially a friend."

They were currently in the Sweet Apple Acres barn; after having met up with Applejack at the market square, they had followed her to the picturesque farm, and after putting away Applejack's vendor cart, they had gotten straight to work in loading the cart with the goods to be delivered to Appleloosa.

"Still, me and Big Mac are mighty obliged for your help, all the same," Applejack said with a grateful smile. "Ah reckon it would've taken us a whole heckuva lot longer to load this cart without ya. Right, Big Mac?" she called over towards the front end of the cart.

"Eeyup," came the stallion's singular reply.

"How's that harness comin' along, bro? Ya almost finished?" asked Applejack.

"Just about, sis; just gotta secure it, now," her brother drawled back.

"Okay, let me know when you're finished, or if ya need any help."

"Eeyup."

"Okay," Applejack said, turning back towards Twilight and Dash, "now that we've gotten the barrels all loaded, we just need to get these here crates of milk and cider on to the cart, an' we'll be all done," she said, gesturing to several lowly stacked crates lying off to the side of the barn, each of them filled with six glass bottles of either cider or milk.

"Gotcha," said a hovering Rainbow Dash, who gave a smart salute before zooming over to the stack of crates and picking up one using both of her forehooves, clearly eager to be finished.

"Now, Dash, ya'll be careful, ya hear? Ah don't need ya droppin' any of those crates and breakin' the bottles in 'em on account of ya goin' too fast to keep hold of them," Applejack admonished the cyan pegasus with a hard look, frowning.

Dash sighed. "Don't worry, A.J., I'll be careful," she said exasperatedly, forcing herself to slow down on her short flight back over to the cart, gripping the crate in her forehooves as securely as possibly.

"So, what time will you two be leaving for Appleloosa?" Twilight asked her earth pony friend as she levitated a crate in her magic.

"The day after tomorrow, in the mornin', probably 'round seven-ish." Applejack replied, raising a rope that was threaded between two gaps in the crate with a hoof before placing her head through it (minding her hat as she did so), allowing her to lift the crate up, with the rope around her neck cradling the crate against her front, although not so low as to obstruct her front hooves. "Want to get goin' as soon as possible; it's a mighty long trip to Appleloosa, 'specially by hoof. Probably won't get there 'til late evenin'."

"Why not get the Friendship Express to deliver the shipment to Appleloosa, if it's such a long trip?" Twilight asked quizzically as they took their crates over to the cart.

"There ain't no trips scheduled to go there for another two weeks, and ah don't want to keep Brae and the rest o' the Applelosians waiting, 'specially when they're so low on food and such." Applejack said, frowning.

That took Twilight by surprise; she almost lost her grip on the crate as she was lowering it into the cart, but managed to regain her focus in time to stop it from a potentially content-shattering impact with the cart bed. Giving a quick mental sigh of relief, she proceeded to gently place the crate down alongside Rainbow Dash's (who was already in the process of carrying over another crate) before turning to look at Applejack and exclaiming, "Appleloosa is low on food?! That's terrible! How is that even possible?"

"Bad harvest," Applejack said grimly, hoisting the crate up onto the cart lip and slipping her head out of the rope carrier, where it was carefully pushed into place by Twilight's magic. "Thanks, Twi. Anyway, seems there was a major drought in that area over the summer, and that's what caused the shortage. Trees can't bear fruit without water to keep 'em alive. Ya'll probably knew that, though."

"How could there have been a drought, though? Couldn't they have requested rain from Cloudsdale or something?" asked Twilight.

"We would if we could, Twi, believe me." Rainbow Dash interrupted as she flew in with another crate in hoof. "Thing is, Appleloosa is a long, _long_ way from Cloudsdale, and also, there's a long stretch of hot, arid badlands to cross before reaching Appleloosa itself. You won't find many weather teams willing to make the trip in the first place. So Appleloosa pretty much has to get by on wild weather to help grow their stuff, nothing manufactured."

"And even if they were willin', ah doubt the townsfolk would even accept the help. Ya know, bein' an earth pony town an' all, ya probably know what to expect, eheheh," Applejack chuckled uneasily, a small sheepish grin on her features.

"Riiight. How could I forget the famous earth pony stubbornness?" Twilight snarked. "So how'd you hear about the shortage in the first place?" she asked as they headed back over to the stack of crates, of which there were now only a hooffull remaining.

"Brae mentioned it in the last letter he sent me, little less than a week ago. 'Course, he then follows it up with a bunch of hooey that he don't want any help from me. 'Now don'choo be worryin' none about me, A.J. We Applelosians have gone through some tough times before, and we've always managed fine. Ah'm sure we'll do so again this time!'" Applejack said in a nearly-perfect imitation of her cousin's voice. "Well, to Tartarus with that. Ain't no way ah'm about to let any kin o' mine go hungry. Same goes for the rest o' Appleloosa. Them ponies have always done right by me and treated my cousin and his family well, the least ah can do to repay that kindness is by makin' sure they have enough food to last 'em the winter." she said, a hard, determined look on her face.

"That's very kind and noble of you, Applejack. Braeburn's lucky to have a cousin as generous and caring as you," Twilight said, the admiration for her friend's words apparent in her voice and on her face.

"We Apples stick together, Twi, no matter how great the distance separatin' us. We look out for one another, and when times are tough for any one o' us, he or she will have no shortage of ponies willin' ta help ya. Be it by offerin' a place to stay, an ear willin' to listen, kind words to help cheer ya…" she paused for a moment, her mood abruptly turning somber, a look of incredibly restrained sadness flashing across her face. "…a shoulder to cry on…" she said in a quiet voice almost too quiet for Twilight to hear. Before a worried Twilight could bring herself to ask what was wrong, however, Applejack blinked once, heavily, before opening them again, the somber sadness now gone just as sudden as it had come, as Applejack finished by saying, "…or right now, by bringin' food to those who need it." She walked over to one of the two remaining crates, preparing to slide it over her neck.

"Applejack?" Twilight ventured softly from behind.

The orange earth pony seemed to stiffen before slowly turning her head to look back at Twilight. "Yeah?"

Twilight opened her mouth in preparation, but then she saw the look in her friend's eyes, a hard look that at the same time seemed to be clashing with the earlier seen sadness, the sadness that threatened to break the hard façade at any time if Twilight chose to continue with her question.

"…Nevermind," she said, walking forward and picking up the last crate with her magic. "So…" she began somewhat awkwardly as they walked the crates over to the cart, Rainbow Dash hovering in place over it, "did you write a letter back to him telling him about the delivery?"

For her part, Applejack slipped back into her tale as if nothing had happened. "Naw. He'd only write me back insistin' that it's not needed and such. Figure it'll be better if'n ah just show up unannounced and _force_ it on 'im," Applejack answered with a devious grin. "Ah'd like to see him try and say no to my face, heheheh. Ain't gonna happen, no sirree."

"Okay, I gotcha, A.J." said Rainbow as she flew down and helped take the neck strap off from around Applejack with her front hooves, before proceeding to fly the crate into place onto the cart bed, while Twilight did the same with her magic for the final one.

"Much appreciated, Dash. Well, ah think that just about does it! How's it lookin' up there, bro?" Applejack called to the front of the cart.

"All set up there, A.J." Big Mac as he came around the side of the cart. "Should be good to go, ah reckon."

"Nice work. Appreciate the help, bro." Applejack said, smiling in thanks.

The sturdy red stallion smiled warmly in return. "Eeyup," he said simply before leaving the barn.

The three friends walked together out of the barn, the warm late afternoon sun casting the fields of Sweet Apple Acres in the golden glow of sunset, although the effect was somewhat dulled by the massive dark stormcloud front overhead, which even now seemed to be rumbling ominously. A gust of wind blew through the trees, making them rustle with the promise of a strong thunderstorm.

"Ah know ah've already said this about a hundred times already, but thank ya kindly for the help, Twi, Dash." Applejack said, smiling at her friends.

"You're welcome, Applejack," Twilight said, smiling back. "Although really, Rainbow deserves most of the thanks. If it weren't for her coming to get me, I probably would've forgotten about the whole thing, ehehehe…" she laughed sheepishly, rubbing a hoof along the back of her neck.

"Seriously, A.J., you should've been there. The look on Twi's face after I snapped her out of bookworm mode was so. Utterly. _Priceless!_" Dash guffawed heartily.

"Heheh, ah'm sure," Applejack agreed, chuckling.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and took the ribbing in stoic silence, that is, until an aching rumble from her stomach made her break it.

"Well, doing all that work has certainly made me work up an appetite. I don't know about you girls, but I'm going to head home. Spike's probably making dinner about now." she said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry myself," Dash commented. "How about you, A.J.?" she asked the earth pony.

"Ah'll admit ah'm feeling more than a mite peckish. Why do ya ask?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, seeing as we're both free for the rest of the night, I was thinking maybe we could go out to eat somewhere in Ponyville. I know this really great place in town that has some of the best food and drink in all of Equestria!" Dash proposed in an excited voice.

Applejack looked unsure. "Hmm, ah don't know, Dash. That's a mighty big storm brewin'," she said, pointing at the stormclouds overhead.

Dash rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, A.J., how often do we get a chance to do stuff in the evenings? Besides, tomorrow you'll probably be too busy packing to do anything, and then the next day you'll be gone for the rest of the week! This is probably the one chance you'll get to have fun for the rest of the week, given the rainy trip to Appleloosa and all. Don't let this opportunity slip you by, A.J.! Live a little! Seize the moment, girl! _Seize it!_" she said in a playfully serious voice, sidling up next to Applejack and throwing a hoof around the cowpony's shoulder, while thrusting the other front hoof dramatically out towards Ponyville.

Applejack rolled her eyes before saying, "Oh, all right, _fine_."

"_YES!" _Dash exclaimed ecstatically, flying into the air and giving a small, joyous loop-de-loop.

"But first ah gotta go tell Big Mac and Applebloom, so they'll know where ah am. Also gonna get my rain poncho, for obvious reasons. What about you, Rainbow? Do you need a poncho?" Applejack asked the cyan pegasus, who was now hovering stationary in the air doing double hoof pumps.

Breaking off her antics, Dash answered, "Nah. I got my own weather cloak back at my house; I'll just head over there really quick and get it while you're in there getting ready."

"All right, then. Be back in a jiffy. See ya later, Twi!" Applejack called back as she trotted off towards the farmhouse.

"Good night, Applejack!" Twilight called back.

"Aw, you're not coming with?" Rainbow asked, disappointed.

"As tempting as the offer is, I'm afraid not." Twilight declined politely. "I really don't want to leave Spike alone all night, and I'm not as willing to go out in the rain tonight as you two. I'm sure the two of you will have fun by yourselves, though, don't worry. You don't need me along to have a good time," she said kindly, smiling.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Dash answered, appearing only somewhat mollified. "Well, you have a nice night, Twi."

"You too, Dash. You can tell me all about it tomorrow at the library, if you like. I'll see you later, alright?" Twilight asked as she began her walk out the Sweet Apple Acres gate on the path towards Ponyville.

"Yeah, see ya." Dash called after her. Sighing, she then turned her gaze upwards towards the stormclouds above her. The sound of thunder rumbled ominously, and at that moment, Rainbow Dash blinked hard as she felt something wet strike her left eye. Holding up a hoof, after a few moments she was able to feel a small, cold impact at the base of it. Frowning and lowering her hoof, Rainbow Dash then watched silently as the first few intermittent raindrops began to fall over Equestria before shaking her head and zooming off towards her house without any further preamble, leaving a prismatic-colored trail in her wake.

* * *

**A/N:**

A quick note on the timestamp chapter titles and interludes: Given that I plan to have this story take place over a seven-day period, from October 24 to October 31, I want to show what day it is in the chapter title, as the story builds up to its climax. Also, in typical police investigations, it's customary to label the places your investigation takes you, as well as the time it takes place at. It's all part of keeping a detailed account of the investigation's proceedings for future reference, and also for when the case eventually goes to court. Detailed case notes are absolutely vital to a CSI. And there will be several prominent investigation techniques employed during parts of this story; it is, in part, a mystery, after all!

So, if an interlude occurs in which a change of location occurs, or a significant period of time passes, I will begin that section with with an italicized timestamp reflecting this. Hope that clears it up.


	3. Ponyville, 8:06 pm

The storm, when it broke over Equestria, came upon the land with all the power of a hundred full grown dragon's roars. The rain came down in torrents from the manufactured storm clouds, drenching the entire landscape of the nation within minutes of its onset. Water levels in rivers rose exponentially, at some points flooding over the banks entirely. The dirt roads that led in between towns and cities quickly turned to mud, large puddles forming in depressions caused by travelling pony hooves and cart wheels. Lightning split the sky frequently, lighting up the dreary night for miles around, followed by the subsequent loud crack of thunder. Small animals that had run for their burrows at the storm's onset shivered in their homes, scared by the storm's fury.

The streets of Ponyville lay deserted, all the residents of the town having taken shelter from the storm when the rainfall began to pick up from its meek-seeming beginning. The rain drummed upon the thatched roofs of the town's buildings, providing a constant irritating cacophony of noise for the ponies dwelling inside them. Miniature waterfalls formed as the rain ran off the edges of the roofs to the ground below. Puddles gathered in the nooks and crannies of the cobblestoned roads, the stones at the edges sometimes glistening wetly in the light thrown out infrequently from windows in homes that had their lights on.

One would think that on a night such as this, most sensible ponies would be locked up in their homes, waiting the storm out. It was not a night to be spent out on the town. But it is on this dark and stormy night that the events of this dark tale truly begin to unfold, and so, we pick up our tale in the _Cockatrice's Egg_, Ponyville's local tavern, where a Stetson-wearing earth pony and prismatic-maned pegasus are doing their best to enjoy the evening, unaware that their evening plans are about to take a turn for the sinister…

…

"…And then the guy just _jumped_. All the way from the top of the camera cloud, from twenty feet in the air! It was So. Freaking. AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash excitedly finished recalling to her friend sitting on the other side of the table.

The _Cockatrice's Egg_ was a rather small, modest tavern, nothing fancy like the ones in the big cities, but it was still a local favorite among the townsponies regardless for its excellent food and drink and warm hospitality offered by the husband-and-wife owners. On most weeknights, the tavern would be bustling with patrons. Tonight, however, it was mostly empty. Save for Applejack and Rainbow Dash, there were only two other tables occupied, the solitary stallions sitting at each of them nursing their drinks in sullen silence. There was also a single magenta-colored mare sitting on a stool at the main bar area who seemed to be well and truly enjoying her drink, if the several empty tankards around her were any indication.

Applejack's jaw hung open in disbelief, her eyes wide. "Well, ah'll be…" she breathed in shock. "That unicorn is crazier than Pinkie Pie fer doin' something like that, and that's sayin' something! A pony can get seriously hurt, or _worse_, doin' that!"

"Relax, A.J.," Dash said, casually waving a hoof, "nothing bad happened; the crowd caught him. Seriously, have a bit of faith in us metalheads, A.J. When a band member does a stagedive, you can rest assured that we'll catch them."

She paused, considering something. "Well, that is, unless the band totally sucks…" but then, seeing Applejack's horrified expression, she hurriedly added, "but most sucky bands don't do stagedives because of that very reason. Point is, this guy's band most definitely did _not_ suck, and thus, they can do stagedives. But most stagedives are not so totally, mindblowngly _epic_ as this guy's was!" a wide grin spreading over her face as she finished.

Applejack chuckled, lightly shaking her head. "Sounds like ya'll had quite the time," she said amusedly.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe," Dash replied enthusiastically. "That probably ranks as one of my favorite concert moments of all time, and I've had more than a few of those in my time, let me tell you," she said, pausing to take a drink from her tankard of hard cider.

"Oh? Just how many o' these here concerts have ya been to, exactly?" Applejack asked curiously.

Lowering her tankard and wiping off her lips quickly with a hoof, Dash considered the question for a few moments before replying, "Best I can guess, gotta be close to fifty. Mostly small club shows, mind you, I've only been to a couple really big festivals."

Applejack gave an impressed whistle. "Dang, girl. You're rightly addicted to them shows, by my reckoning, no question about that."

"You know it," Dash replied with a proud smirk. She then leaned forward slightly across the table and asked in a slightly lower voice, "But do you wanna know who's an even bigger heavy metal fan than me?"

Applejack raised an eyebrow and, after a moment's consideration, replied, "Okay. Lay it on me."

Rainbow Dash motioned with her hoof for Applejack to come closer. Slightly confused, Applejack nonetheless acquiesced, leaning in towards the cyan pegasus' face. Glancing left and right to make sure nopony was eavesdropping, Dash then raised a hoof to the side of her mouth and whispered in a hushed voice only loud enough for Applejack to hear:

"Fluttershy."

Applejack leaned back quickly, a thoroughly gobsmacked look on her face. "You can't be serious; you _must_ be jokin'. Or drunk."

"I'm not joking; by Celestia's mane, I swear I'm telling the truth here: Fluttershy is a serious manebanger." Dash insisted exuberantly, a wide grin plastered on her features.

It was true: Applejack couldn't detect a trace of dishonesty in her friend's words (something on which she considered herself an expert at, even before earning her status as the Element of Honesty), she was being completely truthful. And that, if anything, just made it all the more shocking! Applejack spluttered incoherently for a few moments before finally managing to blurt out, "How?"

"How what?"

"How can _Fluttershy_ possibly like that kind a' music?! Her, of all ponies?!" Applejack elaborated loudly, gesticulating wildly.

Raising a hoof to her lips, Dash hissed, "Shh! Keep it _down_, will ya?" looking over hurriedly to her right to see if anypony had heard. Thankfully, none of the other few patrons were looking over at them, either being too morose or, in the case of the magenta mare at the bar, who was currently in the middle of quaffing yet another tankard of ale, too blasted to care.

"Eheheh, ah'm sorry?" Applejack offered sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck nervously at the stern glare her friend was shooting at her. "Ah get it, ah promise to talk real quietlike from now on."

Heaving a sigh and slowly running a hoof down her face, Dash said, "I would really appreciate it if you did; this is a really big thing for 'Shy, as in super-duper top secret-level stuff; it's _not_ something she wants getting out in public. She even made me Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone else when I found out."

Applejack's face blanched at this, a look of absolute horror on her features. "Daaash…" she began slowly.

However, she was abruptly cut off when Dash leaned over and forcibly shoved her hoof against the cowpony's mouth. "Shhhhhh!" she hissed, even more insistently than the last time. "I'm already taking a _huge_ risk by even telling you; let's not unnecessarily tempt fate with any further incriminating statements on your part, shall we?" she whispered hurriedly. Her pupils, which had shrunk to pinpricks, were paranoidly darting around in every which way, and her ears were high and alert, swiveling left and right in search for some unseen phantom sound.

Applejack nodded slowly against Dash's hoof, and the pegasus just as slowly removed her hoof and leaned back to her original position, although her eyes and ears continued their wary, paranoid vigil.

Reaching up and adjusting her hat nervously, Applejack ventured carefully, "Ah think ah understand fully now why you're so insistent on keepin' this quiet." She herself knew all full too well the dangers that came with breaking one of the pink party pony's special promises. To this day, she still would occasionally wake up in her bed in a cold sweat, the nightmarish memory of Pinkie's wrathful visage and her terrifying accusatory screams of "**APPLEJAAAACK! _YOU PINKIE PROMISED!_**" which even in her dreams-or nightmares, in this instance-seemed to echo with the weight of a thousand angry Tartarian demons still fresh in her mind.

Finally seeming satisfied that no imminent pink wrath was about to be visited upon her, Dash relaxed and said, "Yeah. And now that I've told you, you've gotta swear to me that you'll keep a lid on it in turn. Heck, only reason I told you is because I consider you the most reliable one to keep a personal secret. I couldn't tell any of our other friends; Rarity would blab about it to the first customer she gets, Twilight would probably have some crazy egghead worry about 'Shy's 'mental stability' and want to have a therapy session with her, and Pinkie… well…" her facial features carrying the unspoken '_you know_' implication quite clearly. "So, can I trust you to keep this between us? No telling no one, not any of our friends, not even Fluttershy; I want her to keep thinking it's only me who knows," she asked, leveling a serious gaze at her friend.

Reaching up with a hoof, Applejack removed her Stetson from her head and solemnly held it against her chest before saying, "You can count on me, sugarcube. Ah give ya my honest word as a member o' the Apple family; you can trust me."

"Swear to it?"

Applejack chuckled. "Sure, reckon ah might as well," she said as she placed her hat back upon her head. "Although, do ya think we can just make it a regular swear this time? Ah ain't had that good a track record in keepin' the other kind, as ah'm sure you remember."

Laughing, Dash said, "Sure, I'm cool with that. I'm not too high on those kind of promises, myself, case you hadn't noticed."

"Well, then…" Applejack said, before proceeding to spit on her right hoof and offer it forward towards Dash. "Only form o' swearin' ah holds any merit with," she said with a grin, seeing Dash's amused look.

Chuckling, Dash nodded before spitting into her left hoof, and then the two friends smacked their spit-laden hooves together, sealing the pact between them.

"So, how'd ya come to learn about this, anyway?" asked Applejack curiously, before taking a drink from her own tankard.

"Well, it was around when 'Shy had first moved into Ponyville from Cloudsdayle, had to be, like, five, six years ago. I had already been living here about a year, and she invited me to come have tea with her at her new home, you know, the cottage out near Everfree forest outskirts?"

Applejack nodded. "Ah know the place. Can't say ah've been there myself, though."

"Right. So, yeah, she invites me over for tea and to check out her new place," Dash continued, "We've been friends since we were fillies, me and 'Shy; went through standard flight school and academy together. We hadn't seen each other in a while, like I said, about a year, although we did keep in contact via mail during that time. But yeah, I had to move to Ponyville after being assigned to the weather team there, while 'Shy had to stay behind in Cloudsdayle working the weather factory; she was deemed 'not fit enough' to be assigned to a weather team of her own," an audible tone of anger creeping into her voice near the end.

"Whoa, that's rough. Not seein' your closest friend for that amount o' time… ah can't imagine how hard that must've been for you both." Applejack voiced in sympathy.

"Yeah, and it was especially hard for Fluttershy. She _hated_ working in the factory, just hated it. But it was the only job available for her; there aren't that many jobs to be had in Cloudsdayle, and because 'Shy was so, well, shy, all the other places weren't willing to hire her. Can't get a job if you can't make a good, confident impression when they interview you, you know? So all that was open to her was the factory; they don't particularly care whether you're shy or not, so long as you go about doing your job." Dash murmured scornfully.

"That's horrible," Applejack breathed sadly.

"Yeah, I know," Dash said, glumly regarding the amber liquid in her tankard on the table as she idly held it in between her hooves. "'Shy always used to tell me how much she wanted to work with animals; I figure that was always destined to be her true calling, ever since she got her cutie mark. It was her dream to be a vet, it was her main area of study when she was in academy; she threw herself into learning everything there was to know about animal care and the like, she was like a miniature Twilight during that time, I swear!" she said, chuckling at the memory. "But all that studying really paid off for her: she graduated with top honors in the school of veterinary care and zoology, and with one of the highest grade point averages in her entire class."

"Wow, that's really somethin'. Ah knew Fluttershy knew a lot about takin' care o' animals an' all, but ah had no idea that she was _that_ smart in general," Applejack said amazedly, seeing her timid pegasus friend in an entirely new light. "If she was so smart, though, an' wanted to be a vet so badly, whyever did she remain in Cloudsdayle workin' a crummy factory job? Why didn't she leave first chance she got?" she asked in confusion.

Dash sighed. "Simple: she didn't have the money needed to move in the first place. 'Shy comes from a relatively low-income family; her parents only barely managed to scrape enough together to put her through flight school and academy combined. So it'd be a massive understatement to say that they couldn't nearly afford the cost of supporting their daughter's move, buying a house and everything. So 'Shy was stuck."

"Ah see…" Applejack murmured unhappily. "But, at least she did eventually manage to get out a' there. She wouldn't be here in Ponyville otherwise," she then said, her voice brightening somewhat.

"Yeah, she eventually managed to save up enough for a downpayment on her cottage house. But I tell ya, she had to endure some _very_ tough times during that one year in order to earn enough money. Working the factory doesn't pay much, and 'Shy wasn't gonna work there any longer than was absolutely necessary; she wanted out as soon as possible. So she was forced to make a lot of hard sacrifices lifestyle-wise in an effort to save more money in the quickest time possible; basically, she became Equestria's biggest cheapskate. I'm not even gonna begin to go into some of the stuff that mare had to deal with, in respect for her, personally… and also in respect for our meals," she finished uneasily.

"Ah… see," Applejack repeated once again, albeit in a decidedly more unsettled tone.

"And even with all those bit-saving measures in place, I still don't think she would've been able to save enough money for a house in a year alone working the factory," said Dash, raising her tankard to her lips.

"So… yer sayin' that she had another source o' income on top o' the factory job?" Applejack asked, pondering what that source could be… and almost immediately, a very dark possibility entered her mind, one that filled her with dread even considering. With wide, fearful eyes, Applejack leaned over the table and blurted out, "Dash, don't tell me that Fluttershy became a prostitute!"

Dash, who was in the middle of taking a drink, nearly choked upon hearing her friend's words, erupting into a fit of violent coughing as she struggled to clear her airways. With each word interspersed with a series of coughs, the cyan pegasus wheezed, "W-what?! No! She wasn't a prostitute! How could you even think something like that?"

Thoroughly abashed, the red-cheeked cowpony rubbed the back of her neck ashamedly as she waited for her friend's coughing fits to subside. Once they were more or less under control, Dash explained, "Seriously, A.J., it was nothing like that. I just sent her a portion of my own wages in the mail every week, that's all. I did say that we kept in frequent contact, right?"

Applejack's eyes widened. "Oh. Wow, um, that's really, uh… You… really did that for her, Dash?" the cowpony asked softly.

"Well, _yeah_, of course I did, A.J. We'd been best friends since we were fillies, remember? Once I understood how miserable she was working in that factory and of her plan to save enough money to move, how could I not help her, especially considering how long it would've taken for her if I hadn't? As cheesy as it may sound, even I know how important dreams can be to a pony, and how far that pony will go to fulfill that dream. My reasoning at the time was, that if I can help my best friend in fulfilling her dream, well… it'll certainly be something to be proud of for when I finally do leave this world," she finished in a quiet and subdued voice, a distant, watery look in her eyes.

No words came from Applejack; she didn't trust her emotions to allow her to speak. She stared at her friend with a deep, newfound level of respect and admiration as tears threatened to roll down her cheeks, yet she managed to hold them in. She knew her friend, in her stoic manner, would not tolerate tears to be shed for her own emotions. For her part, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes briefly, before lightly shaking her head and giving a small, almost inaudible snort of amusement before reaching for her tankard and taking a quiet sip from it.

Doing her best to make it seem like she was just idly rubbing her eyes in tiredness, Applejack cleared the threatening tears from her eyes. "So," she began, however, her still high emotions caused the word to come out shaky. Hastily clearing her throat in an effort to calm herself, Applejack then continued, to her relief in a much stabler voice, "you were sayin' Fluttershy invited ya over?"

"Oh, yeah, right!" Dash said, snapping out of her own silent existential ponderings, glad to resume her original story. "So, yeah, 'Shy invites me over to have tea. Having just moved in, she hasn't had much of a chance to unpack, y'know? So there were a bunch of boxes lying around the place. Anyway, we talk for a bit, tell each other how we've been, and then 'Shy excuses herself to go and get started on the tea; she goes into the kitchen while I stay in the living room. After a while, though, I started to get kinda bored, so I decided to take a look around the rest of the house while I waited."

"Do ya usually make a habit o' snoopin' around your best friends' homes?" Applejack jokingly snarked.

"Hey, she said I could make myself at home! Nothing wrong with her best friend taking a look around her then-new house, is there?" Dash lightly retorted.

"I 'spose not," Applejack conceded.

"Right, so, yeah, I take a look at everything downstairs, and after seeing all there was to see there, I decide to take a look upstairs, y'know, to see the bedroom area. I go up there; the room's pretty much barren like the rest of house. But then, I notice that there are a couple of boxes lying off in a corner of the room. I assumed they were just some more boxes of 'Shy's stuff, but it struck me as odd that this box was alone, upstairs, instead of with the rest of the boxes downstairs," Dash continued.

"And let me guess: you decided to take a look inside them?"

"Well, hey, I figured 'Shy would be okay with it. No secrets between friends, y'know? And also, I'd already settled in my mind that I would offer to help her in her unpacking, so it's not like I wouldn't see what was inside most of those boxes, anyway," Dash reasoned.

"So, I open up the first box, and what I find in there just blows me away. That box was literally stuffed to the brim with heavy metal albums! I couldn't believe how many there were in there! And there were even _more_ in the other box! I swear, there had to have been at least two hundred in each box; even I didn't have that many! I'm tellin' ya', A.J., words can't even begin to describe how absolutely floored I was at that moment," she said enthusiastically.

"Heh, ah can imagine."

"So, anyway, I'm flipping through some of the albums, when I hear this tiny 'Oh, dear' from behind me. I turn around, and there's Fluttershy, her face as red as a beet, looking equal parts horrified and embarrassed. I gotta admit, it was kinda cute seeing her like that." Dash chuckled.

"So, what happened?" asked Applejack.

"Well, first I'm all like 'Ohmigosh 'Shy you like heavy metal?!' And then she just gives this scared little nod and says 'Um, yes, I guess,' and then _I'm_ all like 'Hey, me too!' and that I think calmed her down; she was actually worried that I would hate her for liking heavy metal, can you believe that? From there we talked about metal, how we got into it, what bands we liked and all that cool stuff. She showed me some of her favorite albums, too; I tell ya, we had such a blast that night, listening to music, manebanging together and stuff… Best. Reunion. Ever," Dash said, a fond, faraway look in her eyes.

"Nice. That certainly sounds like a memorable moment for ya both," Applejack said appreciatively.

"Yeah. Yeah, it was," Dash said simply, a smile on her lips.

A period of contemplative silence ensued between the two friends, broken only when Dash suddenly broke out in a fit of snickers.

"May ah ask what's so funny?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's something I just considered," Dash said, straining to keep a lid her laughter. "You know how Fluttershy's always so nice and pleasant all the time, even in the moments when she does get angry or frustrated?"

"Ah will admit, the few times ah've seen her get riled up over something or other, she did have a rather… _restrained_ way o' showin' it, to put it mildly. Why do ya mention it?"

"Well," Dash began, a stifled snort of laughter escaping her before she continued, "when you consider the fact that 'Shy is an _insane_ closeted metalhead, it all becomes obvious: the reason why Fluttershy is so pleasant all the time, and why she has such a restrained way of showing her anger, like you said, is simply _because _she listens to so much metal; she just manebangs all the aggression right out of her!"

At this, Dash couldn't handle it any more, and burst into raucous guffaws of laughter, Applejack joining in after a moment's consideration of her friend's words, albeit in a much more controlled manner than the pegasus sitting opposite her.

As the laughter wound down, Dash leaned forward on the table, resting a hoof on her forehead, and said, "Ahh, by Luna, I tell ya, this has been a fun night, and in my case, that's saying something. I'm usually not that big on deep, introspecty talks, that's always been more of Twilight's or Fluttershy's bag. I guess it's because I've spent so much time with you and 'Shy and Twilight and Pinkie and Rarity over the last couple years, you've all just kind of rubbed off on me a bit, character-wise, y'know?" She paused, smiled. "Or I dunno, maybe it's just the booze talking," she said, chuckling.

Applejack laughed and said, "Naw, ah think ya just hit the nail on the head there with the whole 'character rubbin' off on ya' bit, sugarcube. Ah reckon ah feel the same way. Guess that's just another aspect o' friendship, ah suppose, your personalities rubbin' off on each other over time."

"Heh, be sure to remember that for next time we see Twilight. I bet she'll just be itching to write a friendship report about it as soon as possible," Dash snarked.

"Heheheh," Applejack chuckled.

Sighing, Dash then said, "Anyway, my point is, we should totally do this more often, A.J. Y'know, take a breather every now and then from the usual competitive stuff we get up to." She paused, a playful, cocky grin spreading across her features. "Nooooot that I don't thoroughly _enjoy_ kicking your plot on a regular basis..."

"Ah still say you cheated in the last competition we had," Applejack accused playfully, her eyes narrowed in mock indignation.

Dash's only response to her friend was to use a hoof to stretch the skin below her eye and stick her tongue out at the same time.

Shaking her head in amusement, Applejack then said, "But yeah, ah agree with ya on doin' this more often. Ah had fun too, and ah can say it's a heckuva nice sendoff for when ah leave in a couple 'a days."

"Well, then…" a smiling Dash began before picking up her tankard and raising it. "Here's to friends getting together more often!"

"Ah'll drink to that!" Applejack said heartily, raising up her own tankard and clacking it against her friend's before raising it to her lips and taking a long drink as Dash did the same.

It was in the middle of this that Applejack suddenly got a strange feeling. It felt as though something invisible was slowly crawling up the back of her spine, and at the same time, it felt like portions of her coat were burning with heat. She couldn't explain its suddenness or where it came from. But for some reason she couldn't fathom, she suddenly had an inexplicable and unexplainable feeling of cold dread that seemed to fill her very being with an equally unexplainable, yet ominously chilling certainty: Something horribly wrong was going to happen to somepony, and soon!

_KA-THUNK!_

Dash was startled out of her drink by the sudden loud noise, raising a hoof under her chin as cider spilled down her lips. "What the…" she began irritably, but then stopped upon seeing her friend. Applejack's face was pale as a ghost, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, focusing on nothing, her mouth hanging open slightly and quivering in fear. Her hoof was still raised in front of her, but it was empty. Quickly glancing beneath the table, Dash spotted her friend's tankard lying on the ground, its contents spilling out onto the wooden floor.

Looking back at her friend, Dash slowly ventured, "A.J.?"

No response.

"Applejack?" Dash repeated, now more than a touch worried. "Hey, Applejack!"

At last, the earth pony's eyes seemed to focus on Dash, although they remained in their dilated state. Somewhat relieved at this, Dash gently asked, her eyes wide with worry, "Hey, A.J., what's wrong, girl? You look like you've seen Death."

"Somepony's in great danger," Applejack whispered, almost too quiet for Dash to even hear.

"Huh? What? Somepony's in danger? Who? How do you know?" the confused pegasus rattled off, shocked alert by her friend's ominous words.

"Ah don't know," the now shaking Applejack said quietly, leaning against the table with a hoof, while the other was held to her forehead, as she looked aimlessly at the table with her still slightly dilated eyes.

"You don't know what? Who's in danger, or how you know?" Dash asked in clarification.

"Neither!" Applejack bit off forcefully, throwing both her forehooves to the side. "A-ah don't rightly know who's in danger, or even how ah know!" she exclaimed, her own confusion now apparent in both her eyes and voice. Drawing her forehooves around herself and glancing around nervously, Applejack then said, in a voice laced with fear, "All ah do know is that soon, somepony's gonna be in great danger, and it's gonna happen to somepony near…" She then broke off, suddenly noticing something that had escaped her attention, something that now set her nerves on end and put a cold feeling in her stomach.

Apart from the owner stallion currently washing the bar, she and Rainbow were the only two ponies sitting in the tavern now. The mare at the bar had vanished... as had the two other stallions. The drinks they had been nursing now sat unattended on their tables.

"…by."

Without preamble, Applejack abruptly got off her chair and rushed over to the tavern front door.

"Applejack?" asked Dash in confusion, turning around in her chair to follow her friend's movements.

Applejack didn't answer as she flung open the front door. Immediately the sound of torrential rainfall filled her ears as the earth pony stepped out into the rainy night. Ignoring the rain soaking her, Applejack cast her head left and right, straining her eyes for any sign of equine movement in the murky darkness. She saw none, even when a bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the surrounding streets for a brief moment. _Celestiadammit!_ she cursed mentally, the boom of thunder seeming to highlight her unspoken blasphemy as she quickly turned to head back in the tavern.

Once again ignoring her pegasus friend's attempt to get her attention and her cry of indignation as she bulled her way past her standing in the doorway of the tavern, Applejack strode quickly across the length of the tavern, leaving glistening hoofprints in her wake. "Hey, you there!" the dripping earth pony called out as she came to a stop at the cusp of the bar area.

The earth pony owner behind the bar looked up from the tankard he was cleaning with a rag and gave a pointed 'who, me?' look.

"Yeah, you," affirmed Applejack before she raised a hoof to point at the spot the drunk mare had been sitting at, easily identified by all the empty tankards strewn around it. "Who was the mare sittin' at that there spot?"

"Uh, that would be Berry Punch, a regular. She usually comes here once a week and always winds up drinking her plot off," the owner explained with a trace of weariness.

"Uh-huh. And where did she go?" inquired Applejack as Dash came up behind to confusingly watch the exchange.

"She left, to go home, I suspect. Finally worked up the nerve to tell her she'd had enough for the night, and she left without _too_ much trouble, thank Celestia for that."

"And those other stallions that were in here? When did they leave?"

The owner looked puzzled at this. "Er, pardon me for asking, but what is this all about?"

"Just answer the question, please, sir," insisted Applejack.

"Uh, okay. Uh, from what I remember, they left about a minute or two after Ms. Punch left," the owner recalled.

"Together or separate?"

"I beg your pardon?" the owner asked in confusion.

"Did they both leave together or did they leave separate-like?" Applejack clarified.

"Uh… together, I think."

"And you didn't think anythin' suspicious o' that?" Applejack asked in a tone of incredulity.

"…Not really, no," the owner said after a moment, confused. "Look, what is going on here?" the owner asked exasperatedly.

Running a worried hoof over her mouth, Applejack contemplated silently for the briefest moment before a sudden determined look filled her eyes. "Sir, ah'm gonna have to ask if you know where Ms. Punch lives," she stated firmly.

"Why do you want to know that?!" the earth pony blustered.

"Ms. Punch may be in danger, sir. It's imperative that ah know where she lives so ah know the best way to head to find her." Applejack said, gravely serious.

The owner's eyes widened considerably. "W-what? Danger? What dan-"

"Please, sir," Applejack cut him off insistently, "it's important that we find her as quickly as possible, we can't waste any time explainin'. Every second is crucial. Please, if you know where Ms. Punch lives, tell us now."

The owner was silent for a moment, then swallowed gravely and said, "She lives in a small rental bungalow near the center of town. Two-fourteen Sunshine Lane."

"Thank ya kindly," Applejack nodded before turning around and walking past Rainbow. Stopping at their table, Applejack first grabbed her neatly folded faded yellow poncho and then the lantern she had brought from home from underneath in her teeth, setting them both on the table before beginning to unfold the poncho.

"What is going _on_, A.J.?" asked Dash as she came to look her friend from the opposite side of the table.

"You heard me. That Berry Punch mare is about to find herself in a whole heap o' danger, and ah'm not about to let anythin' bad happen to her, not when ah can do somethin' to prevent it."

"You don't even _know_ the mare!" Dash yelled.

"She's a citizen o' Ponyville; that's acquaintance enough for me," Applejack calmly replied.

"You don't even know if it's her that needs the help!"

"Look, Dash," Applejack said, cutting her friend off from any further protests, "ah know ya think this all seems crazy as all get out, but ah can't rightly let this go. Ah can't, ah just can't! Ah'll understand if ya wanna sit this one out, but by gum, ah'm headin' out there!" she stated emphatically, before grabbing her unfolded poncho in her teeth by the hood and swinging the body area of the poncho up and over her back, a practiced maneuver that left the body area of the poncho covering her from withers to dock width-wise, and down to her cannons length-wise. The hood that would cover her head respectively had a strap at the neck area that would hold the poncho together.

Regarding her friend incredulously for a moment, Rainbow Dash then proceeded to closer her eyes, sigh, and shake her head in amusement before saying, "Yeah, fat chance of that, hayseed."

"Huh?" queried Applejack in confusion, turning to look at her friend.

"No way am I sitting this out; you are not going out there without me," Dash stated resolutely, reaching down to grab her own dark blue weather cloak from its resting place on her seat, before repeating the same maneuver Applejack had just performed to place it upon her back. Using her left forehoof to slide her hood into place over her head and then using her wings to hover briefly in the air while she used both her forehooves to do the steel clasp together, Dash then landed lightly before giving Applejack a Tirek-may-care smile, which combined with her fully cloaked appearance, gave her a very roguish air indeed. "Well, we gonna get going or what?"

* * *

**A/N: **Just in case anyone's wondering, the crazy stage dive Rainbow Dash is talking about _actually happened_ in real life. No, I'm not kidding. It was done by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam at the 1992 Pinkpop Festival. Just look up the video of it on Youtube, if you don't believe me.

And yes, I do believe heavy metal exists in Equestria, and yes, I do believe Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are big fans of it. The awesomeness of Metalshy cannot be denied! \m/


	4. Ponyville, 8:37 pm

Berry Punch was having a well and truly awful night.

First, the owner of the tavern she had just been in had kicked her out, saying that she'd had enough, and then, after she had _reasonably_ insisted otherwise (she had totally not yelled at him or called him a flea-bitten old prick or anything like that), he out-and-out told her she was drunk, and if she did not leave, he would force her to. The memory of it still rankled her. The nerve of that guy, telling her she was drunk. Fucking dick. She wasn't drunk! Sure, a bit tipsy, perhaps, but certainly not drunk! She'd only had, like, what, thirteen drinks? …Or was it sixteen? Twenty? The memory was a bit hazy at the moment, but that didn't matter. She knew she was still well within her limit. Heh, drunk, the very notion made her want to laugh out loud. And so she did, boisterously laughing into the murky, rainy night as she walked down Cherry Street, the street adjacent to the one her house lay on.

And then-in no possible way caused by her hooves being in any way unsteady, mind you!-Berry gave a surprised cry as her left forehoof slipped from under her which, in turn, led to her unceremoniously tumbling to an area of the street where, as fate would have it, a very sizable puddle had formed.

Raising her head up off the ground and blinking water out of her eyes while also spitting it out of her mouth, Berry groaned in pain before loudly rattling off a string of colorfully profane curses that would give even the most salty of sailors a run for their money. Having sufficiently vented her anger, Berry then struggled for a moment to get her hooves underneath her-and again, in no possible way was this made difficult by her being drunk or anything!-before finally managing it and getting to a standing position. Glancing back at her left side, Berry distastefully regarded the splotches of mud now marring her coat. Great, now she was dirty in addition to being completely drenched.

That led to the second thing that was currently pissing her off: this Celestiadamned rain! Less than a minute after she had left the tavern, she had been completely soaked through. And here she was without an umbrella or cloak. Why hadn't she taken the time to go home and get her cloak before she headed to the tavern after work? She was now mentally kicking herself to no end for that particular slip-up.

_I'm definitely gonna need a hot bath when I get home,_ she thought wearily as she rounded the corner onto Sunshine Lane. The rain was definitely getting to her; she could feel the coldness of it soaking through to her bones; even the warmth given her by the alcohol in her gut had subsided by this point. With that sole appealing thought in her mind, Berry trudged along down the empty street, until finally she was in front of the door of her house.

_Home sweet fucking home,_ she mentally grumbled as she turned the handle on the door, only to be momentarily surprised when it didn't budge. _Oh, right,_ she groaned inwardly, _Key_.

Taking a few steps back, Berry then looked up to regard the wooden beam at the top of the door frame. _O-kay, here we go…_ she prepared mentally before rising up on her hind legs in order to reach up onto the beam, which was where she kept the key to her house.

However, instead of reaching forward like she wanted-and once more, this was not due to her being unsteady on her hooves in any way!-Berry instead wound up falling backwards off her hooves onto her back proper, landing hard on the street outside her door.

"Oww…" she groaned in considerable pain, blinking away the rain that was now falling directly onto her eyes. Rolling over slowly, wincing at the pain, Berry again mumbled a series of choice curses as she once again got to her hooves. Turning around, Berry then fixed the top wooden beam with a venomous glare. "Shtupid key on the shtupid beam above the shtupid door. Really great idea, Berry, deshiding to hide your key for your house atop your door, really shwell fucking idea…" she muttered as she walked over to the door to give another try.

This time, she laid her left hoof on the door handle to steady her as she raised up to search for the key with her other hoof. Slowly feeling about towards the right side and not feeling anything, Berry muttered irritably, "C'mon, where are you, you shtupid key…" before a search in the opposite direction finally proved fruitful. "Aha!" she cried triumphantly as her hoof came in contact with a small metal object atop the beam. Using her hoof to sweep it off, Berry then bent down to carefully grab the key in her teeth, arranging it so it faced towards the door, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to fit it in the keyhole, she finally managed to get it in.

However, just as she was about to turn the key to unlock the door, Berry was suddenly interrupted by a voice calling from directly behind her.

"Excuse me? Miss?"

Caught off guard, a surprised gasp escaped Berry's lips as she whipped her head around towards the source of the voice. She was greeted by the sight of a cloaked unicorn stallion standing directly in the middle of the street, no more than ten feet directly opposite her.

The lantern the stallion was levitating allowed Berry to make out some of his facial features. His coat was a slate gray in color, the edges of a dark brown mane barely visible from beneath his hood. His eyes were a deep sea-blue in color. The appearance of the stallion seemed to give off an impression of significant age, if the weariness around his eyes was anything to guess by. Certainly not old-geezer level old, though, by Berry's estimate. If she had to wager a guess, this guy was probably in his mid-to-late forties.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Didn't mean to startle you," the stallion exclaimed, giving an apologizing smile.

Regarding the stallion for a second longer, Berry gave a small huff and said, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Sighing, the stallion said, "I seem to have gotten things off to a bad start. I apologize again for frightening you, Miss..?"

"Berry Punch," the magenta mare provided gruffly.

"Well, Ms. Punch, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Winter Star, and I was wondering if you might be able to assist me in an important matter," the now-named Winter Star asked cordially.

"What matter?" Berry asked back, raising an eyebrow questioningly, a tad suspicious of the strange stallion's abrupt forwardness, not to mention his sudden appearance.

"Well, you see, I just recently came into town from Manehattan, on a return trip to my hometown of Canterlot. I was wondering if you could tell me of any places in town in which I might spend the night. It has been a taxing journey for me, and I fear the weather will not allow me to continue any farther this night," Winter Star explained, glancing forlornly up at the sky just as a bolt of lightning flashed across it.

"Try near the shenter of town, then. That's where all the inns are," Berry answered curtly over the thunder before pointedly turning around and making to resume the task of unlocking her door.

"Er, but Miss?"

Heaving an irritated sigh, Berry turned around again, glaring at the stallion. "What?"

Rubbing a hoof across the back of his hood, Winter Star gave an embarrassed-looking grin as he said, "I must confess, I do not rightly know my way around this town. I was hoping that you might deign to assist me in that regard."

"Didn't you shay you're returning to Canterlot from Manehattan? Wouldn't you have passhed through here when you were heading to Manehattan?"

"Alas, my initial trip to Manehattan took me along an alternate route. I didn't have the fortune of passing through your town that time. This is my first visit to Ponyville proper," Winter Star lamented sadly. "So, could I possibly hope to endear your help in showing me the way around your fine town?" he then asked with a hopeful smile.

"Piss off," snapped Berry as she once again made to turn around.

"But Miss…!"

"Look, buddy," Berry shouted as she whipped around and stalked toward the stallion, finally fed up. "I've been having a really shitty night, okay? I was kicked out of the bar I was enjoying myshelf in, I am _drenched_ in rain, _covered_ in mud, I am cold and sore as _fuck_, and now, thanks to you, I am getting a fucking headache! All I want to do now is go in my house, take a nice, long, hot bath, and then go to bed, not eshcort your fucking plot around town! So, jusht in case I haven't made my meaning clear, I'll shay in nice and shlow for ya: _Fuck. Off!_"

Rather than backing away, however, Winter Star remained eerily still, even as Berry Punch's angry face came to within inches of his own. He merely regarded her with those deep-blue eyes of his, which, up close, seemed to contain an unnervingly piercing quality that Berry hadn't noticed initially, and beneath that, Berry thought she could catch glimpses of something much, _much_ darker lurking in the stallion's gaze that sent an involuntary chill racing down her spine. And yet they seemed to hold her in place with their intensity, no matter how much Berry desired to look away, she could not bring herself to break the stallion's gaze, the incessant pattering of the rain on the street seeming to grow in volume in her ears as the silence stretched between them.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but was really only close to a minute, Winter Star blinked once, and then spoke. All traces of cordial friendliness in the unicorn's tone had vanished, replaced by an eerie calmness that once again sent a shiver down Berry's spine. "I truly am sorry for your unfortunate series of events so far this night, Ms. Punch, but…"

And then, suddenly, from out of the murky gloom behind Winter Star, two more cloaked ponies appeared, one on either side of the unicorn. They remained far enough out of the lantern's light that Berry couldn't make out either of their faces, but their mere appearance alone was enough to grip the mare in cold fear. She took a few slow, stuttering steps backwards, her face twisted in terror, yet unable to find the will to scream or yell out, as Winter Star finished speaking, in a voice as cold as the grave:

"…I'm afraid I must insist that you come with me."

Lightning split the sky at that moment, casting the scene in stark whiteness. In that same brief moment, Berry was caught off guard as a burlap sack was thrown over her head and tightened, throwing her world into complete darkness. She only a brief moment to let out a muffled scream and kick out wildly once with her back hooves before she felt a hard, solid object hit her forcefully on the back of the head, and then she knew no more.

…

Applejack and Rainbow Dash galloped full-force down Cherry Street, their cloaks fluttering out behind them and their hooves sending up small cascades of water as they galloped heedlessly through the numerous puddles formed in the streets. Their hoods had long since blown off their heads due to their considerable speed, leaving their faces and manes exposed to the full force of the elements, but neither complained. Not that they even could, considering Applejack was carrying the lit lantern she had brought in between her teeth, while Rainbow had her mouth clamped around an edge of Applejack's hat, which too had inevitably blown off soon after they had begun their run through town, leading to a quick stop as Rainbow doubled back for it, knowing how much the hat meant to her friend.

Nothing except the sound of panting escaped the two mares' mouths as they galloped onwards down the street, their eyes narrowed partly in an attempt to shield them from the driving rain, and partly in plain focused determination. From what the inn owner had told them, they were just about reach the street Berry Punch's house was supposed to be on.

However, as they were nearing the corner, the sight of another lantern's light coming their way from around the corner found themselves hurriedly skidding to a halt, Rainbow giving a muffled exclamation of shock around Applejack's hat. Casting her head about quickly, Rainbow's eyes were immediately drawn to the alley running behind the houses of Sunshine Lane. Thinking quickly, Dash nudged Applejack to get her attention, gestured pointedly to the alley, and dashed over into it, Applejack right behind her. Once they had done so, Dash wasted no time in spitting Applejack's hat onto the ground before reaching over to the lantern in Applejack's grip, and ignoring the cowpony's muffled protests, opened the top of the lantern and blew out the wick, casting the two into darkness. Dash then raised a hoof against Applejack's lips, her eyes dead serious. Dash then cast her head towards the alley's entrance, ears straining for hoofsteps over the falling rain. Bending down to pick up her friend's hat, Rainbow then made a small motion with her head down the alley before heading down it at a quiet trot, Applejack following behind.

They had only gone a few feet before Dash stopped and turned around to face the way they had entered. Laying the hat down on the ground once again, and at the same time bringing her hood back up over her face, Dash then whispered to her friend, loud enough to be heard over the rain, "C'mon, get up against my side. Stay down and stay quiet."

Obeying her friend's instructions, reasoning that Dash knew what she was doing, Applejack came up against her friend's left side, then following her as she slowly laid down on her belly, her forehooves underneath her. They then focused their collective gazes on the alleyway entrance. They didn't have to wait long as the light from the lantern they had espied coming around the street corner soon into view, both ponies tensing as the light came closer.

A procession of five cloaked ponies came into view, headed by a unicorn levitating a lantern. Because of the angle of view and the cloaks they were wearing, Dash and Applejack couldn't make out any identifying features of any of the ponies, besides the previous labeling of the lead pony as a unicorn. But the sight that sent a chill down Applejack's spine was the trussed up unconscious form of Berry Punch, with what appeared to be a burlap sack over her head, being carried along on the backs between two of the rearmost ponies. It took every ounce of her will and the restraining hoof of Rainbow Dash on her shoulder to keep her from rushing headlong into the group to save Berry Punch.

As the procession ventured out of view, Dash and Applejack both quickly got to their hooves, Applejack scooping up her hat as she did so and placing it back on her head, and cantered briskly to the end of the alley, taking care to make sure their hoof falls didn't cause too much noise. They both edged up against the wall of the alley, peeking out around the corner to watch the group of cloaked ponies as they continued on their path down Cherry Street.

Bringing their heads back around the corner, Dash said in more that worried voice, "Oh, man, what are we gonna do now, A.J.? They've got Berry Punch!"

"Ah reckon the only way we're gonna free her is through force," Applejack said grimly, her eyes hard.

"How are we gonna do that?! There's only two of us and five of them!" Rainbow pointed out. Even her considerable hoof-to-hoof skills couldn't fend off that many attackers at once, even with the added assistance of the weapon she had concealed in one of the inside pockets of her cloak.

Applejack racked her brain trying to come up with a plan. After a few tense moments, Applejack said, "Ah reckon we're gonna have to split up. Ah'll stick with them varmints and follow them to wherever they're going, and you fly off and find help."

"But-"

"We can't waste any time talkin' about this, Dash! Just do what ah said, go and find some help, any help, and then bring 'em with you and come find me."

"But how _am_ I going to find you? It's pitch black, and raining, in case you hadn't noticed!" Rainbow pointed out.

A few brief seconds of contemplation later, Applejack said, "Do ya have your hoofblade on ya?"

"What?" Dash asked back in confusion.

"Do ya have your hoofblade on ya, Dash?" Applejack asked again, in a serious tone.

"Y-yeah, I do," Dash affirmed uncertainly.

"Then hoof it over here, quickly," Applejack demanded, in a tone that brooked no argument.

Frowning uncertainly, Dash complied by reaching into the folds of her cloak and extracting her small personal hoofblade gauntlet from the pocket it was held in.

Despite being relatively small in size, the gauntlet was quite a wicked little tool. Made from synthetic leather, the top half of the device was styled much like a regular gauntlet, with synthetic leather straps along the underside that connected across the width of the gauntlet. The main difference between it and a regular gauntlet was a slightly raised portion lying in the middle that ran near the length of the gauntlet, with only a small unraised area near the rearmost portion. Meant to be fitted snugly over one of the front hooves, the gauntlet was designed to respond to the flexing of the muscles in the hoof; flexing them a certain way would trigger an incredibly complex mechanism located in the rearmost portion of the gauntlet, resulting in a five-inch long, inch wide double-sided blade sliding forward from its hidden position through a small opening located near the tip of the front portion of the gauntlet for use in combat. Another flexing of the hoof muscles would send it receding back into its compartment.

Dash had been gifted the weapon by her father before she had left to head off to Ponyville. He had kept it as a memento from his days of service in the Equestrian Army. "Maybe it'll save your life one day," he had joked at the time he had given it to her. Mostly Dash had just kept it stashed away in a drawer in her bedroom at home, never having much cause to use it, but ever since the disappearances had started occurring, Dash had taken to wearing it more and more when she went about her daily routines. Even she knew the value of keeping a weapon for self-defense, and her friends had understood her reasons for wearing it. The only reason why she hadn't worn it that morning was because she didn't want to risk damaging it or triggering it at an inopportune time with the labor Applejack had made them do. But when she had gone home for her cloak, she had made sure to conceal it in her cloak before heading back. At first she had considered wearing it openly, but then figured it could potentially dampen the mood and spoil the evening, and not wanting that, she had decided against it. But still, better safe than sorry, thus the decision to conceal it in her cloak.

Balancing the gauntlet on her right hoof, Dash asked, "You know how these things work?" to which she received a nod in the affirmative from Applejack. "Okay, here," she then said, holding the weapon out towards Applejack.

Grabbing it in her mouth and then working the gauntlet over her right hoof, Applejack then brought the blade forward from its sheathe, and after examining the blade for the briefest of moment, Applejack then took a deep breath and then brought the blade down to her left hoof and drew the blade across it.

"Applejack, what are you doing?!" Dash exclaimed in shock as blood began to well from the cut on the earth pony's leg.

"The best idea ah can think of to leave ya a trail," Applejack explained, retracting the blade and sliding the gauntlet off her hoof. "Figure the smell of my blood will act as a trail that you can follow."

"Are you gonna be alright?" Dash asked in concern.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine. I've endured worse pain than a little cut like this," Applejack said reassuredly, holding Dash's gauntlet back out to her. As Dash took it and replaced it in her cloak, Applejack continued, "Now, get going! Fly as fast as ya can and get whatever help you can get, and then follow my trail from this point! Ya got that?"

"Y-yeah," Dash began shakily, but then composed herself and repeated, more confidently this time, "Yeah, gotcha. I won't let you down, A.J., promise."

"Good to hear," Applejack said with a small smile. Then, she turned to head out of the alley. Just before vanishing around the corner, Applejack glanced over her shoulder one more time at Rainbow and said, "We will save Berry Punch, Dash. You can count on it." And then, she was gone, leaving Dash alone in the alley, the rain pouring down around her her only company.

Taking a moment to marvel at Applejack's incredible strength of will, Dash then turned her mind to the matter at hand: who should she go to for help first? She racked her brain, quickly going through possibilities. She couldn't go to just any random pony's house and bang on their doors and ask them to help her; she was likely to just get the door slammed in her face. Most ponies wouldn't even deign to go out on a night like this, regardless. And she doubted the Ponyville Watch would be of much help. Even if she could find one out and about on a night like this, most of the Watch were just regular Ponyville civilians, not trained soldiers on law enforcement officers. They wouldn't be much use if a fight broke out, and Dash didn't want to see any helpless innocent ponies get hurt.

So that just left Dash's friends to consider. She knew she could count on them to help her and Applejack once she'd explain the situation, but there was no way she'd be able to gather them all and bring them back here; the trail would most likely be cold by then, washed away in the rain. She would have to settle on going to get just one of them. And so she ran through just which one of her friends she should go to. Fluttershy was right out; she wasn't exactly the most combat-willing pony, after all, and Dash didn't think she could stand to see her childhood friend get hurt or injured. Rarity? While Dash knew she wasn't above getting into a tussle on occasion, Dash didn't really place much confidence in her fighting ability, especially if the bad ponies were armed themselves. And while Pinkie Pie could certainly come up with some bizarre fighting tactics, Dash wondered just how seriously the pink party pony would take a potential life-or-death battle with other ponies.

That left Twilight Sparkle, and the more Dash thought about it, the more convinced she became that Twilight should be the one she should go get. Besides being the essential leader of their group, Twilight also had a freaky amount of knowledge in magic and pretty much everything else under the Sun. No doubt she could apply all that knowledge to a battle; heck, she had proven that fact several times over in the past. And she would be able to come up with a good plan-of-attack for when they did confront the bad ponies. And there was no doubting Twilight's courage; Dash knew that she could count on Twilight to stand her ground in the face of danger and guard both hers and Applejack's backs. It was a clear choice to Rainbow.

Having settled on a plan of action, Dash brought her hood up over her head before spreading her wings out from under her cloak and taking to the air. Once she was above the rooftops, she paused for moment in the air to orient herself, trying to find the distinctive tree that was Twilight's home. As if on cue, a flash of lightning lit the sky, clearly illuminating the library a little ways off in the distance to the northwest. Giving a small satisfied grin, Dash then flew off in the direction of the library with all speed, a wake of disturbed raindrops marking her passage.

* * *

**A/N:** So here we go, Chapter 4, in which we meet our villain and things really begin to pick up. Hope you liked it!

I apologize with the wait this chapter took. It wasn't my intention at all; I was in the process of putting the finishing touches on this chapter when my laptop up and died on me. So, with all the hassle of taking it in to Best Buy, getting it checked out, finding out it needed a new motherboard, deciding to just get a new laptop, getting said new laptop all set up, and paying to get my data off my old broken laptop, it took me a long time to finally get back and finish this chapter. Shit happens to the best of us, I guess. At least I learned a good lesson from all that happened: always make sure to back up your story data however you can, or you might wind up paying 120 dollars to retrieve it when your laptop dies.

Well, apologies to whoever follows this story. Hopefully the wait was worth it, lol.


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